Lebanese Christian civil war foes shake hands, make up after 40 years

FILE PHOTO: Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces, speaks during an interview with Reuters at his home in the Christian village of Maarab in the mountains overlooking the seaside town of Jounieh, October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Christian rivals from the Lebanese civil war, Samir Geagea and Suleiman Frangieh, shook hands with each other on Wednesday, marking a formal reconciliation to end more than four decades of enmity.

Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) political party, and Frangieh, head of the Marada party, have been foes since the early days of the 1975-1990 civil war.

The two parties had armed militias during the conflict that battled against each other. The war, which drew in regional powers, included fighting between the country’s main sects and rival factions within those sects.

The men, both Maronite Christians, met to reconcile at the seat of the sect’s Patriarch Bechara al-Rai in Bkerki, north of Beirut. They shook hands with Rai and then with each other after several failed reconciliation attempts over the years.

Geagea has been accused of leading a raid in 1978 on the home of Frangieh’s father, Tony Franjieh, a rival Maronite Christian chieftain, who was killed with his wife, daughter, and others. Geagea has said he was wounded before reaching Frangieh’s house and did not take part himself.

This is the second rapprochement of recent years between civil war Maronite Christian rivals.

In January 2016 Geagea endorsed then presidential candidate Michel Aoun for the Lebanese presidency, ending his own rival candidacy for the position, which must be held by a Maronite Christian under Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system.

Geagea and Aoun, who fought each other in the 1975-90 civil war, have been on opposite sides of the political divide since Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon in 2005.

President Aoun is a political ally of the Iran-backed Shi’ite group Hezbollah, whereas Geagea is a staunch opponent of the group. Frangieh is a close ally of Syrian President and Hezbollah ally Bashar al-Assad.

Tony Frangieh, Suleiman’s son, said the reconciliation was a good thing for all Lebanese and was not connected to any presidential aims.

“We are looking forward to the future by achieving this reconciliation,” he told Lebanese broadcaster al-Jadeed at the ceremony.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington, Laila Bassam and Ellen Francis; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

POTUS Shield Heartland Convocation Begins March 20th at Morningside!

Potus-Shield

By Kami Klein

There is  a movement in our country, a movement to raise up a prayer shield over the USA..  The POTUS Shield consists of Clergy, Church Leaders, Prayer Warriors, Worshipers and Watchmen, all an anointed assembly of Christians dedicated to intercession, prayers, declarations and decrees of The Word of the Lord across our nation.  Frank Amedia and the POTUS Shield Council are leading the way to prepare for a tremendous shift in our nation! Beginning Tuesday. March 20th – Thursday, March 22nd, Morningside will be hosting the POTUS Shield Heartland Convocation!

This two and a half day event features: Morning worship with the “Heaven Sent Worship Team”, includes show tapings at 11:00 am central  of The Jim Bakker Show on Tuesday and Wednesday and our incredible speakers during evening worship beginning at 7pm Central. You will see and hear many charismatic and dynamic leaders of this prayer movement . Among these guests are:

 

Frank and Lorilee Amedia , founders of POTUS SHIELD.  Frank serves Chairman of the Council. They have been ministering for over 35 years and are founders of Touch Heaven Ministries, authors of the Deep Calls To Deep and have spearheaded the Revival One Network. Their personal heart and mission is “prepare the way for the coming of the Lord”.

Bishop Angel Nunez  has been in ministry for over 36 years and is the Bishop of the Bilingual Christian Fellowship. As Senior Pastor of the Bilingual Christian Church of Baltimore for over 27 years, he still travels as an International Evangelist winning souls for Christ..


Bishop Harry R. Jackson, organizer of “The Reconciled Church” conference,presiding bishop of the International Communion of Evangelical Churches,  and Senior Pastor of Hope Christian Church in the Washington, D.C., area.

Global Strategic Alliance President Kevin Jessup

Founder of the U.S. Hispanic Prayer Network, Mark Gonzales

Herman Matir, President of  the Emerging Leaders Network and the Asian Action Network.

Patricia Scahill who serves as Assistant Pastor at Touch Heaven Ministries and as Assistant Director to POTUS SHIELD.
And  Dr. David Herzog who has ministered in over 50 nations in both large evangelistic campaigns as well as hosting and speaking in conferences, churches, seminars, stadiums and outreaches.

We hope you will be able to attend this vital and informative POTUS SHIELD event with us here at Morningside.  If you are unable to be here for the live event, please be watching your local stations to catch The Jim Bakker Show and listen to the amazing prophetic messages from these remarkable guests.  We are also happy to offer the 7pm Central Worship Services on Live feed or on the PTL Television Network through your Roku or Apple TV.

 

Join us in this Holy Mission for our country!

 

POTUS SHIELD SCHEDULE OF EVENTS March 20-22, 2018

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

10:00 am   Prophetic Worship by Heaven Scent Worship Team

11:00 am   Jim Bakker Show taping  Guests: Frank Amedia, Mark Gonzales, and Kevin Jessip

7:00 pm     Prophetic Worship and Speaker           Speaker: Herman Martir

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

10:00 am   Prophetic Worship by Heaven Scent Worship Team

11:00 am   Jim Bakker Show taping Guests: Bishop Harry Jackson, Frank Amedia, Bishop Angel Nunez, Mark Gonzales, Herman Martir

7:00 pm     Prophetic Worship and Speaker          Speaker: David Herzog

Thursday, March 22, 2018

10:00 am   Prophetic Worship  by Heaven Scent Worship Team

11:00 am   Speaker Panel: Pastor Lorilee Amedia, Pastor Patricia Scahill and Frank Amedia

 

Top Republican among wounded as gunman fires on U.S. lawmakers

U.S. Capitol Police keep watch on Capitol Hill following a shooting in nearby Alexandria, in Washington, U.S., June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein

By Sarah N. Lynch and Ross Colvin

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Reuters) – A gunman opened fire on Wednesday on Republican U.S. lawmakers who were practicing near Washington for a charity baseball game, wounding senior Republican leader Steve Scalise and several others before being taken into custody, police and witnesses said.

The gunman died later of his injuries, President Donald Trump announced at the White House.

Lawmakers said the shooter, who was armed with a rifle, had exchanged fire with Capitol Hill police who were at the scene and was shot before being taken into custody.

Scalise, No. 3 in the House of Representatives Republican leadership, was shot in the hip at the baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia. He was tended to by fellow lawmakers including Brad Wenstrup, an Ohio congressman who is a physician, before being transported to a hospital.

Five people were taken from the scene to hospitals, Alexandria’s police chief, Michael Brown, told reporters. Two of the wounded were Capitol Hill police, witnesses said.

Trump, a Republican, said Scalise, a Louisiana congressman, was “badly injured” but in stable condition. He said two of the wounded were congressional staffers.

At a news conference, authorities declined to identify the suspect. The Washington Post, quoting unnamed law enforcement officials, identified him as James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois. The Post reported that he owned a home inspection business.

Police and the FBI said it was too early to determine a motive in the shooting or whether the attack was an attempted political assassination.

Some 25 to 30 Republican members of the House and Senate had gathered for an early morning practice a day before the annual charity congressional baseball game pitting Republicans against Democrats, said Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama. The game is scheduled to be played at Nationals Park, home of the Washington Nationals Major League baseball team.

One congressman at the scene indicated there might have been a political motive in the attack.

“We reported to police that there was a gentleman that confronted us when we were going to our car and he wanted to know whether it was Republicans or Democrats that were out there. We said it was Republicans and he kind of started walking to the field,” Representative Ron DeSantis told Fox Business Network.

DeSantis said he did not know whether the man was the shooter.

Representative Joe Barton, who was at the scene, told reporters the gunman was a middle-aged man who appeared to be white and was wearing blue jeans and a blue shirt. Brooks said the shooter said nothing during the rampage.

The shooting took place at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, which is across the Potomac River from Washington.

CAPITOL POLICE ‘HEROISM’

Brooks told CNN that during batting practice he heard a “bam” and then a quick succession of shots and saw the gunman shooting through the holes in a chain link fence.

When Scalise was shot he went down on the infield between first and second base, then dragged himself into the grassy outfield as the incident unfolded, leaving a trail of blood, Brooks said.

Two Capitol police officers who were at the scene to provide security for the lawmakers engaged the gunman with pistols, Brooks said, adding both the officers were wounded.

“But for the Capitol police and the heroism they showed, it could very well have been a large-scale massacre. All we would have had would have been baseball bats versus a rifle. Those aren’t good odds,” Brooks said.

Brooks estimated that there were 50 to 100 shots fired.

“It’s pretty well known in the neighborhood who those folks are on the baseball field,” Brooks said. “It’s not a secret we are practicing … He was going after elected officials.”

Scalise’s position as whip means he has the difficult job of trying to keep order in the fractious party ranks and rounding up votes for bills.

The shooting was certain to raise again the contentious issue of gun violence in the United States.

Scalise has been an outspoken opponent of gun control measures and has earned an “A+” rating from the National Rifle Association – the influential lobby for expanding gun ownership rights. He has co-sponsored legislation to weaken gun control laws in the District of Columbia.

‘NO SHELTER’

David Miller, who saw the shooting, described a scene in which some players were far enough away from the gunman to run for shelter, while others were pinned down in the middle of the ball field.

“There was absolutely no shelter. They were in the middle of the ball park,” he said. “They can’t run. If they get up they are a target.”

Susan Griffiths, spokeswoman for George Washington University Hospital Center, said two people were being treated there and were in critical condition.

Wednesday’s incident was the first shooting of a member of the U.S. Congress since January 2011, when Democratic Representative Gabby Giffords was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt at a gathering of her constituents in Tucson, Arizona.

She survived, but six people were killed. Giffords resigned from Congress and became an activist for gun restrictions.

“My heart is with my former colleagues, their families & staff, and the US Capitol Police- public servants and heroes today and every day,” she said in a Twitter message.

(Additional reporting by Julia Edwards Ainsley, Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey in Washington and Gina Cherelus in New York; Writing by Daniel Wallis, Kieran Murray and Will Dunham; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Man claiming to be Boko Haram leader denies 5,000 hostages freed

By Ardo Abdullahi

BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) – A man purporting to be the leader of Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram denied in a video posted on Friday that 5,000 people held by the group had been freed by West African forces earlier in the week.

On Wednesday, Cameroon said regional forces had rescued the hostages, who were held in villages by the jihadist group, in an operation along the Nigeria-Cameroon border.

“You are telling lies that you killed 60 of our men and rescued 20 children, and that you rescued 5,000 of your people, Paul Biya,” said the man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, referring to Cameroon’s president.

He also claimed responsibility for attacks earlier this week which included suicide bombings in the city of Maiduguri and a raid on the town of Magumeri, both of which are in the northeast Nigerian state of Borno.

Nigeria’s military has said on multiple occasions in the last few years that it has killed or wounded Shekau.

Such statements have often been followed by video denials by someone who says he is Shekau, but poor footage makes it difficult to confirm if the person is the same man as in previous footage.

Boko Haram has killed around 15,000 people and forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes since 2009 in an insurgency aimed at creating a state adhering to strict Islamic laws in the northeast of Africa’s most populous nation.

The jihadist group, whose attacks have increased since the end of the rainy season in late 2016, also carries out cross-border attacks in neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Kingimi; writing by Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Airstrikes Kill Three Top ISIS Leaders

The Pentagon has announced that three major ISIS leaders have been killed in the last few weeks and that the airstrikes are having a “significant impact” on the terrorist organization.

General Martin Dempsey granted an interview to the Wall Street Journal where he said the highest ranked terroristed taken out in the airstrikes is Haji Mutazz, deputy to ISIS commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“We believe that the loss of these key leaders degrades ISIL’s ability to command and control current operations against Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), including Kurdish and other local forces in Iraq,” Kirby told the Journal.

“While we do not discuss the intelligence and targeting details of our operations, it is important to note that leadership, command and control nodes, facilities, and equipment are always part of our targeting calculus.”

General Dempsey said that the U.S. is not attacking the group as if it was a nation despite their attempts to claim they are a new country.

“It is in the context of how to fight a network,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman added. “It is not a country. They have claimed it, but they are not. They are a network, so they have finances, they have logistics and they have leaders.”